Day Three

We packed up and ate breakfast at the hotel. It was a good breakfast with waffles and French toast, fruit and cereal...the kids all sat away from us and ate doughnuts and acted like we could not see them sneaking junkfood for breakfast. : ) It's their vacation, too.

We got the car loaded and refilled the coolers with ice from the ice machines and hit the road. I drove us out to Mingo Falls because Matt had said he was interested in seeing it again. We climbed the 150 or so stairs to the trail top and walked along until we got to the bridge. With the rain, the falls were nearly full and very pretty. On the way back down, I saw Billy Bob Thorton in a fake FBI hat hiking up to see the falls.

While walking, Matt and I decided we wanted to try the Chimney Tops trail. I recall hiking it as a small child. Apparently I blocked most of it...

I knew Ben and particularly Chandler would never agree to hike it, even though they are perfectly able to. So, we solved the problem of where to stay our last night and give all the motivation needed in two words. Sleep Inn.

On the way out, we stopped at Oconoluftee Park and waded and skipped rocks for about an hour.

We got to the trailhead without much trouble. There was a good deal of construction coming up the mountains from Oconoluftee over to the Sugarlands Valley side, Newfound Gap had almost no parking because of all the contruction vehicles. Luckily on a Monday morning in late April, there was not much traffic and we had nearly no waiting.

We got to the trailhead and there was a crabby old man-he probably was not even old, maybe 60, but he was SO mean and crabby, he felt like a mummy. He asked if I knew anything about the park and I said yes and he started in yelling about how he could not find a certain trailhead.. He went from just telling how he had looked for it to screaming about how he had looked for it. Matt was coming over to tell the guy to back off (so he says) when I pointed out the forestry service vehicle and he toddled off over to it to give the general area the stinky eye because it was empty.

We loaded up our packs and hit the trail. The first 1/4-1/2 mile was the prettiest walking I have ever done. Tumbling whitewater, loud falls, deep clear pools of icy blue water, huge boulders of all colors, bright sunshine, the trees so newly green they looked fake and everything sparkling from the mist and light rain that had just passed through ahead of us. The trail was soft underfoot and the trees were huge, towering over the trail and making a tunnel of cool, damp air to stroll through. All around were wildflowers, the woods and banks were carpeted with them.

After the half-way point of one mile, the trail suddenly turned evil and became muddy, steep and strewn with rocks. We huffed up the trail and stopped often for drinks and to 'let the kids rest' though we usually had to bribe them to sit. hahaha Luckily the really steep section did not last long, maybe 1/2 mile at most. We passed people coming down from the top and were able to get a good idea of how the trail was ahead and how much further we had to go.

At one point, I lifted the ban on complaints and we all had a good bitch-and-moan fest about the trail for 20 seconds each. Chandler may have a future in auctioneering, she managed to get a 3-minute rant in that 20 second space. Matt declined the chance to complain, so we split his time between us for another 5 seconds each.

Near the top, I spotted a snake and tried to get the couple just behind us as excited as we were, but she was scared of snakes. I said it was just a little corn snake and made it a good 2 feet shorter with my visual arm span, like a reverse fisherman. No go, she was rooted to the spot. Poor thing. The snake tired of me trying to get it to pose for the camera and slithered off up the hill away from the trail. I gave her the all clear and her honey man gave ME the stinky-eye and said she HATED snakes, was scared to death of them. I pointed out there were over 800 miles of forest in this park alone, which was flanked on both sides by even bigger forests and there were bound to be more snakes out there. Matt helpfully pointed out that he never would have seen it if I had not pointed it out and wondered how many others we had just walked right past.

Just after this, we had stopped again for a breather and the couple had scampered ahead of us to the summit when who do we see but Cranky Old Man! I smiled a big one and said, "How was it!?" He paused and looked thoughtful. He said, "What was the word? OH! Unenjoyable!" I said, "Oh no!" like I do when the kids come to me with tales of woe involving either the fact that they are not an only child or that ends with something having a dead battery and thus nearly ruining thier lives. He said, "Totally NOT worth the effort!"

We opted to keep going and several times wondered aloud what was so bad about this? The top was nearly flat, the view was spectacular and the wind was blowing so the bugs were not flying around. We hiked all the way to a metal pole, which Jake said, "We came ALL that way to see a POLE?" We found out later we could have climbed the rock face (at 5,000 feet) to the very summit, but Matt was on the brink of making us lash ourselves together just standing on the trail.

We hiked back down without a problem and along the way, I saw all the flowers I missed going up, mainly the dozens of Jack-in-the-Pulpit flowers. The steep part was-if anything-worse going down because the rocks wanted to shift. Ben had a small tumble, but did not hurt himself, just got scared.

Back at the car, we loaded up packs and hit the road again for Gatlinburg and the Sleep Inn. Along the way we stopped at the Chimneys picnic area and played on the rocks. Ben and Chandler got their shoes wet and I was hobbling down the trail watching the kids leap around and run and wondered HOW they managed to move so much. At one point, Ben left the rocks and went uphill toward the road. I yelled to him and he waved and kept going. I suddenly had plenty of energy myself and bounded up the steep incline after him. When I got to the top, some 500 feet down from where he would have emerged, he was no where to be found.

I had a mild panic attack until I told myself hysterical people are 100% useless-I gotta find my baby right now. I looked around in a big circle and noted the location of all the cars and picnickers were right where they were when I parked the van. No car had gone through the loop, I would have heard it, so chances were that he had not been taken. Bears are not out in April in that area. So-where was he? The van was locked, I knew that. So the only other place was the bathhouse. I walked over and yelled in the Men's room door and sure enough, he was in there. *whew* And that was the most stressful thing that happened on the trip.

We got checked into the hotel, had showers, dressed in our bathing suits and headed off to find dinner. I hit a BK drive-thru and we ate on the way back to the hotel. The kids and I stopped at the pools and Matt went on up to deposit clothes and such in the room. The kids swam for 90 minutes, never stopping. There were 2 other kids in the pools-wild, out-of-control kids-well, teens-that I finally had to tell off. They settled a LITTLE and things were more bearable. At least they stopped shoving each other and jumping across the lazy river to the island area.

I sat in the hot tub the whole time. It was not hot a bit, but warm enough to be bearable and the jets were going strong. Matt joined me and we jabbered about the route to get home and this and that while the kids played in the lazy river and the pool.

The next day was our last, time to head home.

Day Four, Gatlinburg, TN to Home

Day Three Expenses:
Sleep Inn: $50 (breakfast, internet, pool)
Burger King: $24.04